What a treat to have an overnight stop in such an amazing city! Rob and I have been to San Francisco previously, but it is one of those cities that I could visit an endless number of times and never run out of things to do and see. This is also the first time I have ever arrived by ship, so I woke up at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning to be present on deck for our approach to the SF pier sailing under the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Gray and hazy as SF often is, the views from the water were still breathtaking.

A one minute video of our sailing under the bridge. Pardon the man next to me talking to his camera. 😂

SF Bay

After we docked, Rob and I wandered along the waterfront en route to our departure spot for our day tour today. We stopped at the famous Pier 39 to enjoy clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl (always heavenly here) and see (and smell!) the seals and sea lions that hang out here. Sound up on the videos below to hear them.

Napa Valley/Sonoma Day tour

Our excursion today took us on a Big Bus half day tour of Napa/Sonoma Valley. We have been to Napa before, but with over 400 wineries in this area now, there is always someplace new to try. Our guided bus tour took us to two wineries, with our first stop being the small (by Napa standards) and family-owned Madonna Vineyards. We enjoyed our tour and some nice wines, particularly their Chardonnay.

Stop number two was the beautiful Ru Vango Winery. This winery is owned by two doctors who helped invent the Covid test, and retired to buy and renovate this winery (originally owned by Robert Mondavi). The grounds are gorgeously landscaped and they have beautiful artwork throughout, including a whole room full of original sketches by Salvador Dali. Their back deck overlooks the vineyard and nearby mountains. This was a place I could have stayed all day just for the sheer beauty of it, and the wine also being good was a great bonus.

Leaving Our Hearts in San Francisco

Between our Hop On Big Bus tour and our wandering, we covered a fair amount of this beautiful city. Sunday night after our wine tour, we headed to Chinatown for a yummy dim sum dinner before returning to the ship for trivia with great views of the city at night.

On Monday we took the Hop On, Hop Off Big Bus tour around the city, stopping for a pizza lunch at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana. If you haven’t heard of it before, this chef won for making the “best pizza”… in the WORLD. He’s got kudos galore in the restaurant world, and the pizza was worth the hype. They have Napoli style, Detroit style, and NY style pizzas, and they evidently do all of them well. We chose a “New Yorker” that had pepperoni, sausage, and the best, most perfect ricotta cheese I’ve ever had in my life. Seriously… that ricotta cheese will be the bar for all other ricotta in my future, and is probably what angels sleep on (or at least snack on) in heaven. Wow.

The photos below are from the rest of the 2.5 hour city tour. We saw a lot and learned a lot, but didn’t get to spend time most places because our ship all aboard was at 4:30 today. We made the ship no problem, but definitely need another SF visit to hit more highlights!

Oh Ship!

We are off to sea, with sea lions and dolphins in our wake, and we have two days at sea before we arrive at our next port of call, Victoria, BC! We have heard so many good things about Victoria, and this will be our first visit there, so we are excited!! Stay tuned for our next blog from there, with updates on shipboard shenanigans, as always. Thanks for adventuring with us!

Goodbye, SF!